


Tearing Down the World

by ombrophilia



Category: Homestuck
Genre: F/F, Language
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-26
Updated: 2013-03-26
Packaged: 2017-12-06 13:30:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,398
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/736229
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ombrophilia/pseuds/ombrophilia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The road Vriska Serket had taken to get to this point may as well have circled the Furthest Ring for how much sense it made. The bottom line of the entire situation was that she’d ended up waxing red for some pompous, stuck-up human—and she was pretty sure that pompous human felt the same way.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tearing Down the World

AG: You'd shit a 8rick if you knew HALF of what still 8others me, Lalonde.

The road Vriska Serket had taken to get to this point may as well have circled the Furthest Ring for how much sense it made. The bottom line of the entire situation was that she'd ended up waxing red for some pompous, stuck-up human—and she was pretty sure that pompous human felt the same way.

TT: How coincidental.  
TT: My lower intestine has recently begun studying masonry.  
TT: If you would care to shed further light on this subject, I'm sure it would jump at the opportunity to show off its skills.  
AG: Hahahaha.  
AG: 8een taking lessons from Strider?

Vriska sighed at her husktop, wondering where she even felt comfortable beginning. Not that she had many secrets left to keep from the analytic queen of the meteor. It was hard to believe they'd ever even met up in the first place, really, but Vriska was just lucky that way, probably.

It was the first thing she'd ever really noticed about Rose Lalonde. Their pajamas matched. Rose's hood always seemed too big, but it just fit with Vriska's first impression of how much of an egghead she was. "Oh, great, we're saved," she remembered saying, and she remembered Rose doing most of the talking while Strider stood in the corner loudly whispering about sports.

"It is always a pleasure, Vriska."  
  
How far could this whole operation have even gotten without Vriska's ingenious use of technology that she forced Sollux to overclock until it worked right? Even if most of it was Rose's idea, told through Kanaya, in the first place. And speaking of Kanaya, wasn't she there back then, too? Yeah. Vriska could practically see the whole scene unfolding before her again. The way she and Rose traded glances—definitely the same kind of look Vriska had seen in Kanaya's eyes before—the whole thing just pissed her off so much. It was one of the first things she remembered talking about as soon as she got a private moment with Rose.

"Look, Lalonde. I'm not stupid. I know you and Maryam have been talking. I've been all _over_ the red quadrants with her and you couldn't hide anything from me if you wanted to." And of course the only thing Rose did was look on and motion for Vriska to continue. "If you do anything to break her, I'm going to be the one to break _you_."

TT: Vriska?

The Trollian window flashed and snapped present-day Vriska out of her past-time "paradise". Shit, she'd been holding down the space bar. A quick select-all later and she was ready to cover her ass.

AG: Captor came over here and started 8la88ing.  
AG: I had to make it look like I was doing something more important!  
AG: 8ut I didn't have to try very hard.  
TT: Of course not.  
TT: Do you feel more receptive to the idea of opening up now that you've chased away our noble vessel's trans-global positioning system?

Of course she didn't, and Lalonde should have known that. They'd bonded over sharing stories about snapping SGRUB over their knees, not over feelings. The story about Rose's broodfester tongues was always Vriska's favorite. It seemed especially apocalyptic that way, like one of the tales of the gods of far-off cultures she'd used to read about back on Alternia.

But Vriska's story obviously topped it. Full of embellishments and a lot of asides and intermissions, she made the legend of how she put John to sleep and forced the wrong thing to be prototyped into an epic poem worthy of the troll literature halls of fame. Thank god Kanaya had found some other place on the meteor to be during that particular storytime, or Vriska never would have heard the end of it.

The only reason Rose didn't cross into grimdark territory again, Vriska figured, was because the story had a much happier ending the way she decided to tell it. One that was way more game-breaking, and way more badass because of it. It even involved her wearing brand new clothes and slicing space and time with an awesome sword! And she never even bothered telling Rose whether any of it was completely made up or not.

AG: Ugh!  
AG: I don't know why you keep trying to get me to talk a8out myself!  
TT: How naïve of me to take your offer to open yourself up to me as a chance to let you open yourself up to me.

Maybe Rose was right. Maybe this could have been Vriska's chance. They'd had more time than she could keep track of to get to know each other as everybody else left on the meteor fucked off to do whatever it was they wanted to do. After a while it even started seeming like they were the only ones left.

TT: But if you feel "unmotiv8ed" towards allowing yourself even the briefest insight into your own feelings,  
TT: Allow me a personal indulgence.

But Vriska was fine with that. It left them so much more time to swap stories and come up with great plans to crash into a different session or... whatever it was that justified them hurtling through the Furthest Ring for a sweep and a half. Or a couple of hours.  However much time they'd spent together, they'd definitely had the opportunity to get to know each other very, very well. Time had lost all meaning the second Vriska had figured out a way to get them on the right trajectory, and that was really her only regret up until now.

TT: Let's discuss a theory on which I have been carefully ruminating since I arrived here.

Probably their own fault for doing the mission without a Hero of Time.

TT: Jack.

Wait. What the hell did Jack have to do with anything? That seemed to snap Vriska out of her thoughts for good. Her attention stayed mostly undivided on the husktop screen.

AG: Are you STILL caught up on that guy?  
AG: Jeeeeeeeez, Lalonde, I told you!  
AG: I sliced him in half three times and avenged that 8lue-hooded doofus for you!  
TT: I assure you, I'm entirely aware of what happened.  
TT: But I remain unconvinced that your moment of vengeance was the best possible outcome for that situation.  
TT: John was not the person you fought for in the story you told me.

That didn't make any sense. Of course that dweeb was the reason she fought Jack and won. He told her what happened when he resurrected, and... hold on. That didn't seem right.

TT: My suspicions first arose when Dave disappeared.  
TT: Though if I'm correct, you don't remember who Dave is anymore.  
AG: Rose.  
AG: You need to start making sense r8ght now, or you need to stop talking.  
TT: Then allow me to be blunt.  
TT: This timeline is doomed. It has been for an incredible amount of time.  
TT: To the best of my knowledge, a doomed timeline has never been forcibly flung into the nyctophilic embrace of the Furthest Ring.  
AG: W8 w8 w8 w8, are you s8ying this is MY fault????????

Of course! Just her luck, right? Finally she did something great! She killed the Demon that she created! She avenged the death of some human to make some other human happy and for some reason that made _her_ happy! While Vriska fumed over what unbelievably terrible luck she _still_ had, despite being _literally the god of luck_ , Rose kept typing.

TT: If alpha timelines are so drastically affected by time dilation and dream bubble intersection as they normally traverse the Ring, it would only make sense that beta timelines are even more adversely affected.  
TT: Sollux Captor disappeared from the meteor some amount of time ago.  
TT: I believe, eventually, everyone in this timeline will suffer a similar fate as the one that befell Dave, Terezi, and Karkat.  
TT: Sorry, "f8."

Around that point, Vriska's tantrum burnt itself out as Rose's crushing realization started to dawn on her, too. Her pacing slowed and eventually, she settled down to two new messages.

TT: So with this new information safely nestled underneath your aeronautically ideal pupation propulsion mechanisms (your "wings"), I should ask you again.  
TT: Is there anything you would like to tell me while we still exist?


End file.
